"Fastball Farce" in Cobourg Town League Finals

from Northumberland Today

Fastball farce mars first game of Town League final

Animosity replaced civility last Wednesday night at Legion Fields, turning the opener of the Cobourg Men's Softball League's championship series into a feud.

What was expected to be a test of skill between the top two teams, Foodland Crush and Grafton Jays, deteriorated into a bitter battle that took two hours and eight minutes to complete.

Grafton won 8-4 on the scoreboard where it really counts. Included in all the distasteful nonsense was a scuffle between Jake Taylor of Foodland and Craig Buttar of the Jays, resulting in the ejection of both players in the sixth inning, Jays' shortstop Cory Olczak being struck by a pitched ball, charges of running up the score, harassment of plate umpire John Cane and various other snarly jibes not worthy of mention.

It is hoped both teams will regain a semblance of sanity for the remainder of the best-of- seven final, beginning with Tuesday night's 8 o'clock start in Grafton and Wednesday night's third encounter back in Cobourg.

Individual and team awards based on regular season play will commence around 7:30 p. m. at Legion Fields prior to Game 3.

Grafton lefthander Jeff Murphy, pitching his second game in as many nights, earned the credit for the win in the stormy curtain-raiser. He yielded nine Foodland base hits, walked four and struck out 12.

Jake Taylor was tagged with the loss, surrendering nine blows and two free passes in 5 2/3 innings before being tossed. With no other regular flinger to take over, young Nick Ellis stepped into the breach and limited Grafton to a single hit while issuing two bases on balls and fanning one in the 1 2/3 innings he worked.

Scoreless in the first three innings, Grafton broke the string of goose-eggs in the top of the fourth via Buttar's double to centre and Tom Lewis's RBI single.

In the fifth, the Jays parlayed singles by Pat Rutherford, Craig Minifie, Dave Hare and John Garland with a walk to Buttar and error putting Lewis aboard, all after two were out, to grab an insurmountable lead.

Foodland busted Murphy's shutout in the fifth on doubles by Jason Cane and Dan Burnham and scored three times in their half of the sixth to offset Grafton's final three markers in the sixth round on the strength of back-to-back solo homers by the other Jeff Murphy and Aaron Trude, followed by doubles from Cane and Burnham again.

Craig Minifie, a last-minute arrival, enjoyed a perfect 3- for-3 night on Grafton's behalf whereas Burnham topped the Crush with two doubles and a single.

Sine's surrenders

Tuesday at Grafton, the host Jays mercied Sine's 8-1 in the decisive fifth game of their best-of-five set. The game started out as if it would be a good one but that changed when Terry Lewis suffered an upper body injury early in the game with Grafton leading 1-0 on an unearned second-inning run. Bryan Harold was the surprise reliever for Lewis on the firing line, despite hurling just two innings all year.

Grafton quickly capitalized for four runs in the third, featuring 2-RBI singles by Minifie and Olczak. The rest was academic.

Eight Jays shared the club's eight-hit attack. Murphy breezed along on a four-hitter, ringing up eight on strikes in the shortened five-inning affair.

Scott Leblanc of Sine's was the game's one multiple hitters. He singled twice and walked once.